Ulthwe
Description A conglomeration of powerful families Ulthwe stands as a barely working mess of intertwined interests and grudges. However their strength both unified and fractured is enough to make every nation weary, with more individual powerhouses than any other nation no one dares take Ulthwe lightly. Governed by the National Council, Ulthwe faces its foes as a unified force however many families have their own private armies that fight enemies both internally and externally. Many mighty cities span the countryside, with even more palisade fortified towns spotted all over the place from the cost to the mountains, the sparse southern woodlands and the great lake of Ziyaun. History - Pre-Cataclysm (A.C ~0): Little is known about the land that came to be known as Ulthwe prior to the cataclysm, but what does remain speaks of a mighty but oppressive empire. - The First Families (A.C 30-60): After Decades of small roving tribes warring and fighting over resources certain familial bands started to exert dominance over increasingly larger parcels of lands. Bringing a sort of stability to the area. First amongst these families where the Tyr'ians in the west and the Nesters in the north closely followed by the powerful burgeoning Gretinian empire to the south. - The Eastern Wars (A.C 55-90): A series of aggressive raids from the Orcs to the east and strange creatures from the underground pushed the newly formed eastern Hegemonies of the Bartholomew family and the Yural family to the edge. The Yural family was led by a viscous warlord, rumored to be half-orc himself, they fought the invaders every step of the way bringing down 3 for every 1 of their own. Many of the specifics and details have been lost to time and the mythos of glorious defenders fighting a numerically superior opponent, but after many full scale wars between A.C 55-65 the Yural families thirty thousand members were all gone and the orcs alone recorded a hundred thousand casualties of their own. The Bartholomew family fared considerably better, sending wave upon wave of abominations built from machine and magic they kept the losses to a minimum on each attack losing only two hundred kilometres of land. With each successive attack however the Bartholomew coffers got emptier and emptier until in the year A.C 68 when they sent messengers begging for assistance north to the Nester's west to the Tyr'ians and south to the now flourishing Gretenian empire. The messengers returned from the west with thousands of well trained men, from the north with a single observer and the promise of reduced trade tariff's but the observer sent south never returned, this is considered by many historians to be the first point in which a united Ulthwe can be seen. With the new reinforcements from Tyr and lucrative trade being opened up with the Nesters, who were willing to pay good money for the strongest live specimens captured in battle, the Bartholomew family began to push back the Orcish invaders claiming both their land and much of the land belonging to the Yural family. By A.C 74 the Bartholomew family had recaptured all their lost land and while they owe much of their success to the support of the Nester's and the Tyr's; the remnants of the Yural family who had rallied together under the banner of Allin Al-Maut were the true cause for success. When the Yural family had been broken they retreated into the tunnels of their once enemy, in a period of relative peace from the raids from below ground (A.C 67-72) the refugees built an impressive defensive rampart underground and from within these ramparts they held back the denizens of the under-dark. By A.C 83 the now Al-Maut family had secured the tunnels that were once used to invade Ulthwe and the Bartholomew's held the eastern border. From there began a seven year was of aggression with numerous incursions into orc land and into the darkness deep underground, but with supply lines too thin and the landscape too hostile not to mention viscous attacks from the natives each expedition failed without any notable gains. Cities Gretin Ultharion Tiranium Fabian Notable Towns Tohran Category:Setting Category:Country Category:Ben's Pathfinder Campaign Category:Ulthwe